


Serpents and Thorns

by TeriTheTacticalUnicorn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Eventual Romance, F/M, Good Severus Snape, Good Slytherins, Hogwarts Professors, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Ilvermorny House - Horned Serpent, MACUSA | Magical Congress of the United States of America, Mentor Severus Snape, Original Character(s), Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:00:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29245458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeriTheTacticalUnicorn/pseuds/TeriTheTacticalUnicorn
Summary: Rose Elizabeth Potter is the eldest child of Lily and James Potter, born to the couple when they were nineteen and newlyweds. When they were killed, Harry and Rose's godmother, Alexandra Newton, took Rose into her care just before accepting the position as Ilvermorny's Headmistress. Raised in America, Rose has to quickly acclimate to the UK in her final year of school at Hogwarts and then the life as a British citizen while trying to help the Order of the Phoenix against the Wizard who killed her parents, and tried to kill her brother. She has to deal with all that is happening to her family while also trying to figure out her relationship with a certain broody Potions Master.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	1. Roses have Thorns

Rose Potter hadn't known she had a younger brother until she saw his name and face in the mail drop her second week back at school. Her best friend, Celine, had transferred to Ilvermorny from Hogwarts two years ago, her mom still sent her the Daily Prophet every week. 

It was that night when she marched into Headmistress Newton's office and with a _thwack_ , slapped the British Wizard Newspaper, The Daily Prophet, onto her desk. Still in her pink pajamas with little polar bears on them, she tapped a slippered foot. "Care to explain this, Miss Newton?" Rose was irate. 

"This is your younger brother, Harry. But how did you get this, Rose?" Alexandra Newton was a stout, middle aged muggle-born witch from Manchester, England. She sat, stock straight, reading the newspaper article about the fourth year brother of seventeen year old Rose winning the Triwizard Tournament and the death of another boy, Cedric Diggory.

"Why didn't I know I had a brother? Why was he left in England while I grew up here? None of this makes sense, Miss Newton." Rose took a breath before selecting her next words carefully. "As my seventh year has just begun, I will be immediately transferred to Hogwarts. I can't believe you and Pop kept this from me." Rose said before Alex could respond.

"I will have you immediately transferred. Be ready within the hour." Miss Newton said, nodding. Rose had been put into her care when the Dursley's refused to care for two infants of James and Lily's. Rose was no more than three when she came to the United States. Now Alex had to let her ward go to her brother, to the school in the Scottish Highlands. 

Forty-five minutes later, Rose stood in front of the Horned Serpent statue that had glowed for her seven years ago. She had pulled her auburn curls into a high ponytail, ringlets hanging to frame her lovely face. She wore skinny jeans and black converse, a green and black striped wife beater under one of her Ilvermorny Quidditch sweaters in blue and crimson. Her Ilvermorny trunk with her snowy fox, Cresta's, cage sitting atop it. Her mother's emerald eyes alight with hope to know her brother, who would be in the first few weeks of his fifth year. She knew she waited for a Hogwarts Professor to come and collect her from Ilvermorny. Some Mr. Snake or something. British names confused her.

"Ah, Professor Snape!" Alex's alto voice called as Rose flipped her English oak wand with the climbing rose vines around her fingers. "Let me introduce you to Miss Rose Elizabeth Potter, elder sister of your famous Harry Potter. She has asked to be transferred, and as she is seventeen and a legal adult in the Wizarding community, I cannot dissuade her any longer." Alex explained with a slight catch in her throat as she tried not to cry. 

In all respects, Rose looked almost identical to her Mom, Lily. Her face was not as sharply angled, and her eyes were a dimmer green, but her hair and the sideways smirk she gave the ornery, broody Potions Master were her mothers. 

"It's nice to meet you, Professor." Rose said, holding out her hand, which he took and gave a firm shake.

"Shall we be off then? Dumbledore awaits with the sorting hat." Snape seemed like a Professor who had one too many bad students. His monotone voice and stiff posture made Rose want to cringe. She nodded and held Cresta's cage in one hand and her trunk with the other and then Snape lay a hand on her shoulder. They were standing in front of a massive castle the next moment. Ilvermorny was big and beautiful atop its mountain, but this was grander than anything Rose could have imagined. 

Snape escorted Rose into Dumbledore's tower office, where the old, probably sickly professor waited with three other teachers. "Ah, Miss Potter. You are your mother's daughter. You have met Professor Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House and potions Professor. May I introduce Professor Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House, Professor Filius Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House, and Professor Pomona Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff House." Dumbledore introduced each teacher in turn as they stepped forward to shake her hand. 

In her too-american accent, she greeted each teacher, having to kneel to shake Flitwick's hand. "It's nice to meet you all." She said, smiling.

Rose was asked to sit on a wooden stool and McGonagall placed a worn hat on her head. She jumped a bit when it spoke, "Ah, another Potter. But a seventh year transfer. Very ambitious and proud, but brilliant. Slytherin!" The hat only took a minute to decide which house she belonged in. But wasn't her brother in Gryffindor? Her plucked eyebrows furrowed but accepted the sorting hats decision without question. Afterwards, Snape led her to the Dungeons. "Am I gonna be locked in a cell or something?" Rose joked, but Snape didn't seem amused.

"No, Potter, Slytherin's common room and dormitories are down here." He told her that she needed a password to get into the Slytherin common room and told her what it was before a door opened and he led her into a busy common room full of students sporting differing states of dress. Some wore what she assumed was the school uniform, while other were in pajamas or everyday clothes. Snape left her in there, where another seventh year showed her to the girl's dormitory. Five girls per room, ten students per year per house. Only 280 students in such a massive school. 

The next day was Saturday, so there were no classes. Her new robes lay on a wooden chair next to her bed as well as a green and silver knit scarf, gloves, a beanie hat, and, to her surprise, a Quidditch sweatshirt with the number seven on the front and POTTER on the back. Genevieve had said Slytherin had no Seeker this year because their fifth year, a kid named Malfoy, quit. Alex had told Rose that her father had been Gryffindor's Seeker, and Snape told her that her brother played for Gryffindor since his first year. 

Rose slid on a pair of black tights, tight jean shorts, and a Mötorhead t-shirt with cuts in the sides over a white camisole. She was tying her black combat boots when the other girls in her dormitory began to wake and get dressed. 

"How mundanely American." One girl said, scoffing as Rose took a hairbrush through her crimson curls. Cresta was an exception to Hogwarts familiar rules. They usually only allowed Owls, Cats or Toads.

"I was born in Godric's Hollow, my blood is just as British as yours is, now if you're done making fun of my clothes, Cresta and I are going to breakfast and for a walk." She said, standing from her bed as the white fox followed her out of the dorm. 

It was in the expanse of space between the Castle and a little hut where three students found her, sitting in the grass with Cresta curled in her lap. "Are you alright? You're the new transfer student, right?" A girl with dirty blonde hair, a boy with brilliant red hair and… her brother, stood next to her. 

"Yeah, Rose Potter." At the last name, Harry's head snapped to glare at her. "Your older sister, Harry." Rose held out her hand, and he smiled, shaking it.

"We heard you were adopted by the Ilvermorny Headmistress. And that you were sorted into Slytherin. We can't say we don't wish you were a Gryffindor. Who's this?" The girl, who said her name was Hermione Granger, asked.

"Cresta. I got her for my eleventh birthday." Rose ruffled Cresta's fur between her ears.

The rest of her first day at Hogwarts was spent with these three. She learned that her Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were horrible no-maj's, or muggles as the British called them. They had tried to refuse Harry's acceptance to Hogwarts by fleeing to every corner of the United Kingdom. The little hut she had seen was owned by the Groundskeeper, Hagrid, who was half giant. Professor Snape had once been their mothers friend, but hated their father. Their Godfather, Sirius Black, had escaped Azkaban but was found innocent afterwards. 

Rose got several dirty looks from others in Slytherin as she walked the grounds with Harry, Hermione, Ron, a boy named Neville and a Ravenclaw girl named Luna. 


	2. Truth of Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Dumbledore's Army end the school year with the wrong sort of bang.

Rose excelled in her studies, especially potions. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was a joke. The woman wore the ugliest shade of pink you could imagine. 

And she did not teach defensive magic, but the theory of it. Even Mr. Knox, the shy DADA teacher at Ilvermorny with Tourettes, had taught them basic defensive spells. Rose was proven to be much too advanced for the class. She could perform a perfect patronus when she was thirteen, and had knocked back Alex during more than one teenage yelling match during her summers. 

Rose had gotten the answer to her problem when Hermione told her to meet them on the seventh floor in October. Rose almost squealed when the hidden door appeared. "This castle is more than I ever expected. Secret rooms, a three headed dog. Is a year here ever boring?" Rose asked as she set her books down on a wooden bench inside the room of requirement. Ron laughed and shook his head.

"Not since we got here." He chuckled.

Rose shed her robe and sweater vest, leaving her in her dark grey skirt and tie around the neck of her button up dress shirt, knee-high green and silver socks and combat boots. She was the only Slytherin that had been allowed to join Dumbledore's Army.

The day's lesson was on how to produce a Patronus charm. Her bright doe leapt around the room with the memory of meeting her baby brother and him accepting her. 

These secret defensive lessons lasted until the day before the Christmas break. Both Rose and Harry would be going to a flat on Grimmauld place, where Sirius Black stayed. She had yet to meet him face to face, but he had shown excitement in his letters to meet her. So the next morning, dressed in black leggings, a pair of converse, and her oversized Hogwarts hoodie, she met her brother, Ron and Hermione in Hogsmeade at the train platform. Rose would be turning eighteen the day before Christmas and she couldn't be more excited to spend it with real family and friends. Even Celine and Everest, her two friends from Ilvermorny with One or both parents who had attended Hogwarts, were visiting. 

In the week leading up to her birthday, several people came and went from 12 Grimmauld Place, the unexpected being Severus Snape, who was at her first Order meeting, along with her new friends, Fred and George Weasley, their parents, a few people from the Ministry for Magic, and Alastor Moody, the famous Auror.

Sirius stood at the head of the table before speaking, "for those of you who have not met our newest member, allow me to introduce my Goddaughter, Rose Potter. She is Lily and James' eldest child and had been hidden away in America until the beginning of the school year." A small applause and then straight to business about the man who killed her parents and tried to kill her brother. 

It was nice to have family who cared. She was practically adopted by the Weasley's. 

The doorbell rang early the next morning, Rose and Kreacher were the only people awake in the house. Rose, in only an oversized dark green sweater that stopped mid-thigh, padded from the kitchen with a mug of coffee, her hair barely passable for even Kreacher, she yanked open the door. "Professor?" Rose asked, looking at Snape through sleep-filled eyes. "It's six in the morning, Uncle Sirius isn't up yet." She said, taking a soothing sip of her black, bitter coffee. 

"I only came to give you a birthday gift, Potter." He said, watching Rose rub her eyes open with a sleeve. He held out a black velvet box for her, and she set her coffee down on the mail table.

Inside the black box was a necklace with an emerald and diamond serpent surrounding a ruby rose. "It's beautiful, thank you." But when Rose looked up, Snape was gone from the snow-covered porch of 12 Grimmauld Place. 

The holiday break seemed to fly by. As did the beginning of the second term. It wasn't until Snape was late for one of her Occlumency lessons that she questioned why he acted so adverse to teaching her how to use the gifts she and her brother had. 

She hadn't been able to break through his defenses. Tonight she had, and didn't expect what she would see to be about her. Glimpses of the dream catcher tattoo on her left thigh, the white lily tattoo on her right shoulder blade. And the strong feeling of need that pulled her to her feet and into her Professor's arms. Her pale arms wrapped around his waist. Snape hesitated before holding her close and laying a wet cheek on the crown of her head.

She reminded him of her mother. But at the same time, it wasn't the same type of love. The love she felt he had for her mother had once bordered obsession. The love he had felt for Rose was protective, soft, caring. She felt it in the way he tipped her chin and ghosted his lips across hers. And then he kissed her in earnest, as if it would save him from a Dementor's kiss. 

She excused herself, apologizing. She didn't want to make a situation out of it. Professors weren't permitted to fraternity with students. "Rose, wait…" She heard Snape's plea, and it was almost enough to stop her from leaving as she pulled her robe back on and gathered her school books, leaving Snape's private office. 

Someone snapped in her face, "huh, what?" She snapped out of her daydreaming in the library the next day as Hermione shoved a Divination text book to her side of the table. "Oh, sorry Hermione. Didn't sleep well. Ok, this right here…" she and Hermione spent the whole day in the library, breaking only for lunch. They were excitedly chatting about Nifflers, Thunderbirds, and Hobgoblins when they entered the great hall with Luna and Cho. 

"Snape looks bloody angry, who d'ya think got points taken in potions today?" Maisie McDonnell asked, elbowing Pansy.

"Potter probably got into some kind of trouble, Gryffindor's are known for it." Pansy snapped, glaring at Rose.

It wasn't the entire fifth year class failing their OWLs because Fred and Gworge interrupted the test, or the broody Professor never finding Rose alone to talk. It was Sirius' death and finding out Snape had once been a Death Eater that sent Rose into a rage. Tonks had let it slip that, even though he no longer compliantly followed Voldemort, he was the cause of her parents death.

"What do you mean he  _ made a deal _ ? To sacrifice my brother and I so he could have mom? She would never have left dad." Rose argued, crossing her arms over her chest. She still had blood dripping from her nose, and a dislocated shoulder when Snape strode into Grimmauld Place. Her green camisole soaked down the front with her recently reset nose, and her grey leggings torn at the knees. When Tonks set her shoulder, she shoved past Snape, Tonks giving her a look of pity as Snape looked confused. 

For the remainder of the school year, Rose ignored any attempt by Snape to speak with her. Harry hadn't returned to Hogwarts after Sirius' funeral, burying an empty coffin hadn't sat right with Rose, either. 

It was the last day when McGonagall approached her, "Miss Potter, I hope you're considering returning next year to teach Care of Magical Creatures after your summer apprenticeship with Newt Scamander. Your application for the position is impeccable, and being the type of animagus you are is a valuable asset to the students. I hope you do consider it." Minerva gave Rose a half-hug, and let Rose get on the train.


End file.
